The missing mercenary
by Toa from Siberia
Summary: Nobody knew what happened to the Engineer after the fall of Mann co. As miss Pauling said, he seemed to vanish from the face of Earth. And that is because he did...
1. Prologue

The sound of metal clanking against metal could be heard from the basement of an abandoned house. Down at the basement, two people were working on some kind of machinery. One was a middle – aged man, whose face was hidden behind a welding mask. The man was dressed in overalls, which were covered in a thick layer of oil. He was welding something to some strange machine that looked almost complete, but was obviously lacking of some parts. The second one was a blond haired girl that seemed to be no more than 10 years old. The girl was wearing a simple dress that was tattered and greased no less than the clothes of the man. She was looking at the image on a blueprint and was comparing it to the machine at the basement. From time to time, she handed some parts of machine over to the man. Soon enough, the last part was put into its place. The man lifted the faceplate of his welding mask and took a step back to admire the result of their work.

-Phew. Well, Ah recon that's that.

-Are you sure we have to do this, Dad?

The man looked at the girl.

-We have no other choice, Irene. This Gray guy knows about these blueprints. And he will stop at nothing to get them. And us. We just barely managed to escape from these goons yesterday. It's only a matter o' time before they catch us.

-But still, seeking asylum in another universe? How is this even possible? How can we be sure that this thing will actually work?

-Ah checked the calculations and blueprints three times. Nothing's wrong. But still, all we can do is to pray that it'll work.

-But what about your teammates?

The man hesitated before answering.

-We'll find a way to contact them later. But now, let's test this thing.

The man went up to the control panel and activated the power switch. Several sparks flew out of the contraption and the machine started humming. The man started typing on the keyboard. Soon, the monitor read: "Coordinates set", and the man pushed the final button, which read: "Start".  
The contraption started emitting sparks like crazy, but nothing other than that. But as the duo was about to sigh in defeat, the air in the giant metal arc that was next to the machine, hooked to it, began shimmering and then, something what looked like an energy wall appeared in the arc. The duo was just standing there in genuine awe.

-Daddy, it worked! It actually worked!

-Well, Ah'll be damned...

The man walked up to the portal and slowly moved his gloved hand to it. The portal was steady and wasn't going to shut down any time soon. As his hand touched the portal, it went straight through but didn't appear out of the other side of the arc. The man retracted his hand and sighed.

-Well, this is it, Irene.

-Do you even know where it will take us?

-All Ah know is that the other side of the portal is fit for habitation. Other than that - no idea.

-Well, let's go then.

Irene went to grab their backpacks while her dad walked up to the control panel again.

-One last thing to do.

The man typed the code and the monitor showed the message: "Self-destruction mechanism activated. Time left: 1 minute"  
Irene walked up to her dad with two big backpacks and handed one to him.

-Everything is set, dad.  
-Alrighty then. Let's go.

As the duo walked up to the portal, the timer already showed: "15 seconds". The girl and her dad looked at each other one last time and stepped through.  
Seconds later, eight armed to the teeth men charged into the room, looking for their targets. Finding none, the biggest of them, who was wearing a combat vest, small googles and bandana bellowed in frustration:

-Damn, they got away! Search everything in the hou...

The beeping from the machine interrupted him. As the men looked at the machine, the monitor read: "3"  
"2"  
"1"  
"Self-destruction"

-FUCKING HE...

The scream was cut short however, as the machine exploded with horrifying force, instantly vaporizing the house and everything that was in it.  
Twilight was agitated. No more than ten minutes ago princess Celestia sent her a letter about some powerful pulse of energy at the old casle. The pulse was so powerful that it could easily rival the power of both princesses or even the Elements of Harmony. Wasting no time, she gathered all of her friends and together, they went to the castle.  
So, here they were, standing at the doors of the castle, discussing what to do when they find the cause of the commotion.

"I don't see any reason why we should have a plan. We just go there, and kick the flank of whoever dared to mess with us!",- said the rainbow-maned pegasus mare.

Twilight sighed: "We don't even know what is in there, Rainbow. Such surge of power was last registered when Tirek broke free." The lavender alicorn shuddered at the memory.

"B-but what if it is s-something d-dangerous?",- the timid yellow pegasus mare squeaked.

"The princesses said that they will come here personally if we are not heard from in an hour. Don't worry, Fluttershy, everything will be fine. I hope. Let's go, girls."

And with that, they entered the castle.

One hour ago.

Everything went white for the duo as they entered the portal. They couldn't feel anything except the feeling of endless falling. But soon, the feeling subsided and the vision was slowly returning to them.  
When they could see again, they saw that they now were in some sort of castle. The building looked like it has been abandoned for years, although it was very well preserved. The duo looked around.

"Well, at least the teleportation didn't kill us.",- the man sighed in relief. "But where are we?".

His daughter took off her backpack, opened it and took out a modified GPS. "Hmm, there's no signal.",- the girl said. "Looks like it's broken."

"Give it to me",- her father asked. Irene handed the device to him. "This thing can not be broken, I made it myself. But that means..." The man rushed to the nearest window and looked out. The view outside made him just stay there in shock.

Outside was a large forest that stretched miles away from the castle. But it was not the forest that surprised him.

Not further than 15 meters away from the castle stood a creature he had never seen before. The beast had the body of a lion, a scorpion tail and bat wings on its back.

"What's that thing?",- Irene's voice brought the man out of his stupor.

"Heck if Ah know. But if it is real, and Ah'm sure that it ain't some hallucination, it means only one thing.",- the man smiled.

"We made it!",- Irene exclaimed happily and hugged her dad. "We are actually in another world!"

"We are, sunshine, we are.",- the man could barely contain his happiness himself. At last, they no longer had to be on the run, fearing for their lives. Seeing that his daughter yawned, he remembered that they hadn't slept for two days working on the portal. "Ah guess we should find a place to sleep. We've been up for too long." And with that they went to explore the castle.  
Soon enough, they found a decent room with two beds. The duo took off their backpacks and Irene dragged them to the corner of the room, while her father placed a toolbox at the entrance. As he pressed a button on his PDA, the box opened and some sort of robot began unfolding itself. In a minute, the entrance of the room was blocked with an automatic turret armed with two miniguns and a rocket launcher.

Irene looked at the sentry. "Is that really necessary?".

"We don't know what's out there. Better not take any chances.",- the man replied.

Having no strength left, the duo just lay down on their beds and prepared to drift off to sleep.

-Night, Dad.

-Night, my sunshine.


	2. Part 1 First day, first problems

Ever since Twilight and her friends entered the castle, the ponies never stopped discussing what to do when they found the source of the disturbance. Besides Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, however, as one kept to suggesting to beat the life out of whoever caused this and the other one was rambling about throwing them a party.

"Why do you think that they even deserve a party?" the cyan Pegasus asked in irritation. "We had to go all the way out here for this; I was in the middle of flying!"

"Everypony deserves a party, Silly! By the way, what cake should I make for them? Hmm, chocolate maybe? Oh! Oh! I know! Vanilla! Or maybe even-!"

Twilight interrupted their argument with a raised hoof. "Shh!" she whispered harshly. Her ears were pricked up, as if listening intently. Eyes narrowed, she glanced around them. "Girls, do you hear that?"

As the ponies' voices were lowered, they heard a faint, high pitched beeping noise from upstairs. It was repetitive, bleeping quickly three times over before resting a second, then commencing the cycle all over again. It sounded a little like a robot.

"Wh-...what is that?" Fluttershy whimpered shakily, hiding behind her mane.

"I don't know," Twilight replied, listening more intently. "...Looks like it's coming from the living quarters."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash cried, itching for some action. "Let's go!" The cyan pegasus started to run towards the stairs, only for her tail to be caught by Twilight's magic. "G-augh?!"

The lavender unicorn levitated her friend to her face, which was contorted into one of annoyance. "We go together," she reminded.

"Uh... yeah, sure," Rainbow Dash blushed slightly as she was put back on her hooves.

Twilight gestured for her friends to follow as she led the way, determined to find the cause of the disturbance.

As the ponies walked towards the beeping noise, they noticed a strange metal contraption, blocking the entrance to one of the rooms. The machine was constantly rotating left and right, emitting the same noise they heard from downstairs. The bottom of the machine was a steel biped, supporting what looked like two cylinders with five or so smaller cylinders inside. On top of it all was a red box, with four holes in it. Each of the holes were a home to some sort of metal... ball?

"...What in tarnation is that?" whispered Applejack.

"Well, I myself am at a loss, Darling, but its design is truly bizarre." Rarity remarked. "The shade of red could certainly use some work..."

"...I think I know what it is."

At these words everypony turned to Twilight. The unicorn continued, narrowing her eyes at the machine. "If this thing belongs to the one who caused the disturbance, which I'm certain of, its owner is in that room. And this thing is most likely some sort of mechanized guard- Hey! Rainbow Dash!" Twilight's magic once again engulfed the mentioned pegasus, dragging her back.

"Lemme at 'im! I can take it!" the cyan mare protested. "It's just some machine!"

"We don't even know what this thing is capable of, Rainbow," Twilight reminded, inspecting the red mechanism as her friend once again dropped to the floor. "...But it looks like it doesn't see us."

"Ughh... Well, what's your plan, then?"

Instead of answering, Twilight lit her horn again. "I hope this will work."

—

Irene and her father were woken up by loud beeping coming from the PDA.

Dell quickly grabbed the device, inspecting the cause of the disturbance. As the red glow from the PDA illuminated his features, the Engineer cursed silently.

"What's happening, Dad?" Irene whispered in fear.

"Someone musta' disabled our sentry. Quck, hide behind your bed!" The man ushered his daughter in the desired spot, handing her his pistol. Irene looked at the weapon in her hands. She was young, but that didn't mean she never fired a weapon. When they were on the run, she had to use a gun to protect herself way more than once.

"Hey," her dad whispered rather suddenly, which caught her offguard. "You know Ah' love you, no matter what happens. Right?"

Irene stared up at her father, wondering what he meant by that. Instead of explaining, however, the man quickly gave the girl a kiss on the forehead. "You defend yourself anyway you can. Ah' promise Ah' won't look at you any differently." Then, Dell hurried to behind the wardrobe.

The man reached for his backpack and took out a shotgun that was decorated with ornaments on both sides. On the right side of the gun was a small metal contraption. "Frontier Justice" was its name.

Conagher quickly loaded the weapon, exhaling deeply. His heart pounding, he glanced out of cover at the spot where Irene was hiding. "Nobody'll touch you," he thought. "Never again." With the safety of his daughter in his hands, Engineer cocked the weapon, his eyes narrowed from under the goggles he wore.

Soon, a feminine voice was heard. "All right, girls, I think I disabled this thing. Let's go."

Silence was evident for a few seconds, before it was broken by the sound of footsteps outside. The sound was strange, as if every member of the group was wearing high-heeled shoes.

"Looks like it's here." the same voice said. "All right, I'm going in."

"Be careful, Twi." another feminine voice with a thick Southern accent said.

The man tightened his grip on his weapon and got ready as the door opened. His gloved finger hovered over the trigger as he peered from behind his cover, hoping to see the enemy.

What he saw, however, made his jaw drop. It also nearly made him drop his shotgun.

In walked an equine-like creature with a lavender coat, a dark violet mane and tail with a purple stripe, and a horn and wings adorning its body. On its flank was a picture of a violet six-pointed star surrounded by white normal stars.

"What is that?" Engineer gawked, returning back to his cover. "...It kinda reminds me of last Halloween. Heh, Scout would kill to see this-"

CLONK!

Irene, who was also looking from behind her cover, accidentally dropped her pistol from the shock. The pony quickly turned its head towards the noise, attentive. Irene ducked, but too slow. She was spotted.

The creature's horn emitted a violet aura as the girl was flung out of her cover to the center of the room.

"Oh, no you don't!" Engineer thought furiously. "NOBODY treats my daughter like that!"

Conagher flung himself out of his cover, jamming the shotgun barrel against the creature's head. The equine froze, eyes wide. That only made Dell's finger tighten on the trigger. "Ah' would stay still if Ah' were you," Engie's teeth gritted, rage evident on his face. "...Pardner."

—

Twilight froze, the shock that she was seeing an actual human in Equestria overpowering. That was impossible; the Mirror transformed anyone who passed through!

"Wh-... what do you want?" her voice was shaking with fear as she stared at his rage-filled face fearfully.

"Ah'm askin' the questions here, Pony," the bipedal said coldly. He had a thick Southern accent. "Tell yer friends to come on in. Ah' know you ain't alone."

Twilight gulped as the barrel of the contraption dug into her skull, leaving no room for questioning. "G-... girls? Please, come in."

"What's up, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked quizzically. "You sound pretty nervous."

As Twilight's friends entered the room, their eyes went wide as they saw a tall bipedal being, dressed in overalls. It was towering over Twilight and pointing a strange metal thing at her head. Next to them was another creature who looked pretty much like the first one, but was much shorter, had longer hair, and a more slender face. It looked scared as it dashed to the bigger one's side, shakily holding another metal thing at them. The other bipedal responded with a pat of her head, one hand still holding the slender thing. The small creature was wearing a dirty and tattered dress, matching the Southern style with the bigger one.

"Hey! Let her go!" Rainbow shouted, preparing to charge. However, before any mortal wounds could be inflicted, she was grabbed from both sides by Rarity and Applejack.

"Woah, there, Rainbow! Hold yer horses. We don't know what that thing can do to Twilight."

"Yer friend is right," the bipedal stated. "Stay right there, or yer friend here is a Goner." After the reluctant pegasus calmed herself, the creature continued. "You see this here shotgun?" He tapped the contraption in his hand. "This here's a Winchester M97, customized by Yours Truly. It fires 12 gauge caliber bullets, has a range of twenty-two yards, and is powerful enough to blow this here pony's head off. So now y'all know what Ah' can do to her."

The room of ponies gawked at that. Rainbow Dash instantly shut herself up, all hopes of rebellion gone in a flash.

"Ah' reckon y'all will know who's in charge here," the man said darkly.

"What do you want?" Rainbow Dash nearly whispered.

"Ah' could ask you the same question," the bipedal gritted his teeth, finger touching the trigger. "Y'all just come in here an' think you can terrorize mah' daughter and Ah', huh? Well, Ah' guess Ah'll have t' teach y'all a lesson..."

The room once again went silent at the reveal of the two's relationship.

Twilight guiltily interjected: "We were sent here by the princesses to find the source of an energy disturbance! I swear, we never intended to hurt your daughter!"

The tall human raised an eyebrow at that. "Jus' what were you going to do when you found this... 'energy disturbance?'"

"Well... we were to report to the princesses and wait for further instructions."

The man was deep in thought after hearing the lavender unicorn's words.

"...Alright, maybe they didn't want to hurt us," he thought. "Sure, she attacked first, but only because she thought us to be a threat. Moreover, no actual harm was done..."

Finally making his choice, he lowered his shotgun and motioned the unicorn to join her friends. Seeing this, Irene lowered her pistol as well. The man cleared his throat. "We're, uh, sorry for making such a terrible first impression... Ah' suggest we should start over. What do y'all think?"

"I guess you're right." Twilight agreed, before turning to Irene. "Following his apologies, I'm sorry for attacking you earlier. I didn't know you weren't an enemy."

"It's ok." Irene said softly, clutching her father's side. Conagher put a hand on her head, stroking her hair as he smiled.

The unicorn felt a warm feeling in her heart as she examined the pair interact. They were definitely father and daughter. She then backed up so she was with her friends, still facing the human. "I guess introductions are in order. My name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Howdy, Ah'm Applejack" an orange pony with a Steston said. The man smiled a bit at hearing his native accent, tipping his hardhat to her as a greeting.

"Name's Rainbow Dash. The fastest flier in all of Equestria!" a cyan mare with a rainbow mane puffed out her chest proudly.

"Are ya sure your name ain't Scout?" Engineer mused in his head. He smiled and repeating the gesture.

"Why, hello there. My name is Rarity. And I must say that you really need some new clothing." a white unicorn said with slight distaste.

Conagher chuckled. "Ah' know. But let's just say that in our... situation clothes issues were far from being the most important problem." the man sighed a bit sadly.

The man was about to continue when his vision suddenly turned pink.

"HI!" a mare with ocean blue eyes and a pink... well, everything else chippered.

"Whoa, easy there, pardner!" the man stepped away from the pony, chuckling.

"Sorry for our friend here. Pinkie Pie is always anxious when she meets new ponies." the violet unicorn apologized quickly.

"No apologies needed, Ma'am. And who is you friend over there?" he gestured toward a yellow Pegasus, who hid behind her pink mane when the man had turned to her.

"Um..." she whispered, unsure of what to say. However, as the yellow pegasus saw the genuinely friendly smile on the man's face, she finished. "I'm Fluttershy," the mare whispered, the man barely hearing her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Fluttershy," Engineer remarked, tipping his hardhat to her. The words made the mentioned pony uncover her face and smile timidly. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you... Whelp, guess it's mah' turn. Ah'm The Engineer and this here is my daughter Irene."

"Hi!" Irene smiled at the ponies.

"'Engineer?' That's... not really a name. Why choose the name of a profession as an actual name?" Twilight tilted her head.

Engineer laughed, tucking his hands in his belt. "Well, it's not my real name. My working contract demands me to keep my name a secret."

The ponies just stared at him in confusion.

The man thought for a moment and added: "But since Ah' no longer work there and Ah'm in a different world, Ah' think that my contact doesn't matter anymore." The man smiled to the group. "It's Dell. Dell Conagher."


	3. Part 2 Plans for the future

Twilight reappeared in a flash, finding herself to be in the living room of her castle. She was instantly greeted by her number one assistant.

"So, how was it?" Spike asked shakily, worry evident on his features. "Did you solve the problem? Did anything happen?" The memory of Tirek was still fresh in his mind, and he didn't want something like that to happen again.

"No time to explain, Spike," Twilight huffed, gathering herself. "I need you to take a letter."

Without hesitation, the dragon grabbed a parchment and a quill, ready to write. Twilight began dictating:

_"Dear Celestia and Luna._

_I am sending this to report that the issue with the energy disturbance has been resolved. However, we have another problem on our hooves. The reason for the disturbance was two humans who entered in our world. What is more interesting, these humans are not from the human world I visited, which is a human version of Equestria, but an entirely new one. The humans turned out to be a father and a daughter. By the words of Dell (the father), they came to this world seeking a place to hide from something he said he would better discuss with you. Both of them seem to be friendly enough, but I can see that they are hiding something. Something that is most probably the reason for them being hunted. Anyway, I ask for advice what to do next. The humans, me and my friends will be waiting for your reply at the old castle._

_Sincerely,_

_Twilight Sparkle."_

"…Twi-light... Spar-kle. Okay, done." Spike burned the letter in a puff of green flame, sending it to the Royal Sisters. "So, now what?"

"Now, you come with me. We will wait for their reply there." The alicorn grabbed the baby dragon with her magic and they both vanished.

**Back at the old castle.**

The duo just stared at the spot where Twilight was standing a moment ago.

"H-how?" was all Dell could say at this point.

The ponies looked at him in confusion. "You manage to teleport to another world, yet you still are shocked by a simple teleportation spell?" Rarity tilted her head.

"Well, teleportation ain't uncommon for us, but to do it without any equipment… this is amazing!" the human replied.

"Wait, you don't have magic in your world?"

"We have, but it's very rare. Personally, Ah knew only one magician",- Dell grimaced at the memory of what Soldier's roommate pulled him and his team through. Memories of the boastful, rather awkward wizard filled his mind. He shook them out.

The group shielded their eyes as Twilight reappeared in the room.

"Well, that was fast," Dell remarked.

Spike's eyes widened in shock when he saw the two humans. Noticing his expression, Twilight reassured him. "Don't be afraid, Spike, they're pretty friendly. Dell, Irene, this is Spike, my number one assistant. Spike, meet Dell and Irene, the two humans I mentioned."

"Uh… hi…"

Irene's eyes widened in amazement: "Oh my, a real dragon!" The girl walked closer to the baby dragon. "That is sooo cool!"

Spike puffed out his chest proudly. "Well, yeah, you don't see many of those like me around here." At this remark all ponies rolled their eyes.

"Well, pleased to meet you!" the girl extended her hand, which Spike eagerly shook. But right at this moment Spike's cheeks puffed as if he was going to belch.

"Oh, my, did I do something wrong?" Irene looked at Twilight in panic. Before the alicorn could reply, Spike belched a puff of green smoke which quickly materialized into a parchment tied with a ribbon and a golden seal. The dragon quickly caught it in his claw.

"Heh, pretty interesting method of communication." Dell commented in amazement. "But is it safe for ya to do it all the time?"

"Nah, just slight discomfort, nothing more." Spike shrugged and handed the letter to Twilight.

_"Dear Twilight"_ she began reading in whisper as her friends crowded behind her.

_"Me and my sister are glad to hear that the issue has been resolved without major problems. However, we are very concerned about these humans and for their reasons for being here. I fail to imagine what must happen to make somepony take such extreme measures. It is true to assume that they are hiding something. However, we agree to discuss these problems with them to prevent misunderstandings. We will be arriving to your location shortly._

_Sincerely Celestia and Luna."_

"So, what does it say?" Dell asked from across the room.

"The Princesses will arrive here soon to discuss the situation," Twilight replied, not wanting to reveal her and the Royal Sisters' mistrust towards the duo.

"Well, now we wait, Ah' guess."

"Yes, oh, and I forgot to ask," the lavender alicorn said as her childlike curiosity returned to her. "What is this thing anyway?" She pointed at the no longer working sentry that still stood by the entrance.

Dell smiled. "This here is the automatic firing device, or just sentry. Basically, it's a machine that automatically locks on targets and destroys them in seconds." He walked up to the sentry. "And looks like it needs fixin`".

The ponies just stared in shock.

"W-why would you create such a horrible thing?" Twilight stuttered.

"These things were designed to guard top secret facilities and such." Conagher pulled off the hull of the contraption and started checking the wires. "And, by the way, it ain't my creation."

"But still, this machine was made for murdering!"

"You should understand, Twilight, that there are some things that would be disastrous in wrong hands and must be guarded by any means necessary." The Engineer put the hull back into place. "Alrighty, Ah' fixed it." As if to confirm his words, the sentry started rotating and beeping once again.

The ponies looked at the contraption nervously.

"I-It won't attack us, right?" Applejack asked nervously.

"Nah, don't worry, Ah' changed its program a little bit so it won't detect you as enemies."

"How did you repair it so fast?" Twilight asked. She was sure that her spell had fried all the electronics inside this thing.

"Heh, it was designed specifically to have as little important and hardly replaceable parts as possible. So, the internal repairs take no longer than five minutes." Dell spoke not without a hint of pride in his voice.

"You speak like you knew the creator of this thing," Rainbow thought aloud.

At these words the man sighed sadly and turned his eyes away from the group.

"Ah' did." this time the Engineer's voice was filled with something the ponies never heard in his voice before: sorrow.

**Meanwhile near the castle's bridge.**

The four hooded ponies gathered around a large metal container. From the inside they could hear loud squawking of anger and flapping of thousands of wings.

"Everything is ready, boss."

"Is the princess inside the castle?"

"Yes, we saw her entering with her friends. They all are still there."

"Good. This means we can take them out all at once. Release the beasts."

One of the ponies opened the lock on the cell. Once the door was unlocked, out rushed a giant flock of strange beings. The creatures had serpentine body, bat-like wings and chicken heads. They all stared at the group as if waiting for something.

"Boss, as you ordered, these cockatrises were specially trained to attack any target they are told to. Just give them the order."

"Excellent."

The boss walked up to the flock and gave the monsters a look. At last, he could deal not only with the princess, but with all of her friends too. And then, he would only have to get rid of with the Royal Sisters. The Queen will be very pleased.

"You all know what to do," the boss addressed to the creatures. "Go to the castle and turn the princess and all of her friends to stone. If they prove to be a problem, don't hesitate to kill them. Now go." With that, he pointed his hoof towards the castle.


End file.
